I succeeded in liking the Phantom Menace at the cinema. I knew that it was some kind of a forced love (which Lucas trumped with Anakin vs. Padme one movie later). But I kinda liked it.
Then the DVD arrived and everything got worse. The pacing was off (an already too long race got longer) and some CG scenes surrounding the pod race got longer and more embarrassing. That was the moment when I knew that Lucas himself got off the track. I didn’t know about the special edition changes back then.
Interesting, that’s what happened to me too. Then again, when I saw TPM in theaters I was nine years old. But until today I never knew there was a difference between the theatrical release and what was on DVDs. I guess I should have expected that though.